What do fishing, coffee and Alumni Relations Management have in common?

Do you know those huge fishing nets? You see them quite a lot in Kiel. They are closely knit textile formations, made up of individual rows and lines of thread - and they don’t become stable until the knots are added. The same is true for networking - as an individual you are a lone fighter, but when you find other people who have what you don’t have, you gradually build up a strong network that you can fall back on throughout your whole life. read more

Bringing people together

This is exactly what my job is about as Alumni Manager at Kiel University (CAU). When people ask me what I do, I tell them: “I bring people together who can mutually support each other’s development.” The networks I establish consist of the most different groups of people – there are former Kiel University students, former researchers and teachers from Germany and abroad, but also entrepreneurs from the region and people who are currently studying or working at the CAU. Every single one of them has a different situation in life and different needs. They are connected by their time and experiences at Kiel University, common subjects or personal interests.

Setting up your own network profile

This is what alumna and corporate consultant, Ellen Johannsen, tells us about strategic networks this afternoon at the “CAU Business Coffee Break” – the first joint networking event by the Career Center and Alumni Relations Management – on 24 June 2017. Forming your own profile is the important thing, and that you reflect specifically on: “What makes me stand out? What are my strengths and skills? What am I looking for?” On this basis you can build up the information and, for example, search for and find people on career networks such as XING and LinkedIn via their profile details, who can become a useful addition to your own network. Topics which break the ice are usually a shared interest or common experience. It is therefore helpful to put all the information together beforehand that you know about the other person and to think about which details you want to share about yourself.

Discover what you have in common

At today's “CAU Business Coffee Break” we are giving nearly 50 participants initial impulses for networking and bringing people from completely different professional and age groups together in conversations: the Chemistry graduate, who is back in Kiel for the first time in twenty years, is talking to a young graduate about how the degree programme has changed; the Sports Scientist is talking to the Linguistics student about working in an international environment; the Environmental Economics student is talking to the Nutritional Scientist who works in marketing. Why are we bringing these people together? To give our students the opportunity to establish valuable contacts at an early stage; to give working professionals new impulses for their own networks; to promote exchanges between people who have more in common with each other than they might have realised at the start. I am pleased to see that many participants swap their contact details and notice that the first work experience placements have already arisen from the exchange!

Participants during networkingPhoto: J. Winters, Uni Kiel

We hope that in future we will be able to bring even more people together who can support each other’s professional and personal development. Has this caught your interest in networking? We will keep you up to date with other planned events in our alumni newsletter. Have fun establishing your networks and collecting new contacts!